Suburban and rural homeowners typically have a mailbox located at a road at the edge of their property or across the street from their property. A post mounted or pedestal mounted mailbox is an example of a conventional mailbox used in such an arrangement. Mail is deposited in the mailbox by a mail carrier and is retrieved by the mail recipient (i.e., an individual, a member of a household, a member of a business, etc).
A conventional, remotely-located residential mailbox (i.e., a conventional mailbox located at a road at the edge of their property or across the street from their property) is convenient and financially advantageous for the postal service because it allows mail to be delivered without the mail carrier having to leave their vehicle and/or individually delivery mail at each physical building on a mail route. However, this arrangement is less than convenient for the mail recipient as it requires them to venture outdoors in sometimes inclement whether conditions, which may result in falling on a slippery surface or becoming ill. The mail recipient also places himself or herself in danger in that they generally must stand near a roadway to retrieve their mail.
Mail tampering is another drawback associated with conventional mailboxes located remotely from a recipients premise. A conventional, remotely-located residential mailbox (i.e., a conventional mailbox located at a road at the edge of their property or across the street from their property) is typically not locked, even though it is lockable. Thus, the potential exists for the recipients mail to be tampered with or for undesirable and/or dangerous object to be readily placed in their mailbox.
Various types of article transport systems that are configured for and/or capable of transporting mail from a remote location (e.g., at an edge of the recipient's property) to a recipient premise (e.g., the recipient's home) are known. Examples of such known mail transport systems (i.e., conventional article transport systems) are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,264,032; 6,474,912; 5,518,545; 5,356,243; 5,215,412; 5,174,689; 4,941,777 and 6,729,808. While each these conventional article transport systems do provide a means for transporting mail from a remote location to a recipient premise, they are also not without one or more limitations. One limitation is that some such conventional article transport systems include a carrier device that can be readily removed at the location where a carrier deposits mail, which can result in theft of the carrier device, insertion of foreign objects into a carrier tube of the system, etc. Another limitation is that some such conventional article transport systems include a carrier device that does not include means for precluding extraction of mail by an unauthorized party once the mail has been deposited within the carrier device.
Therefore, an approach for delivering mail through transportation from a remote location in a manner that overcomes limitations associated with conventional article transport systems would be useful and advantageous.